Tackling data privacy to unlock the power of big data analytics

This new report, produced by Finextra in association with Privitar, examines the data privacy challenges financial institutions face, the impact of these challenges on firms’ ability to leverage the data they hold, and solutions available to enable them to meet their data privacy obligations while also exploiting the power of their data.

Many financial institutions know that data is their most valuable asset, and are investing in next generation technologies to better leverage that data. This could be to meet obligations in areas such as regulatory compliance, or to go further – capitalise on the data they must capture and analyse anyway to drive secondary commercial goals through sophisticated marketing approaches.

However, many also face challenges when it comes to making the best use of their data assets. Data privacy concerns can limit what banks are able to do with their data – and adhering to privacy rules can slow down the availability of data to underpin innovative new developments. The changing regulatory landscape, with the new GDPR on the horizon, adds a further layer of complexity around what banks can do with data. At the same time, customers’ expectations around how their data is used are changing.

Overall, the power of big data analytics is clear, but some fundamental building blocks need to be in place if banks are to unlock that power for commercial benefit.

In this context, this paper sets out to assess how realistic it is for financial institutions to successfully balance the opposing forces of powerful big data analytics and increasingly stringent data privacy obligations.

The paper combines the findings of a detailed online survey carried out by Finextra with the insights of data privacy and protection experts gathered through one-to-one interviews. It explores the progress banks are making with big data and in which areas. It examines the challenges most often impeding progress, and identifies the biggest opportunities banks see to do more. It also looks at the value and contribution of technology solutions to enable banks to embed privacy and data protection into their big data approaches.

To learn more about how to tackle data privacy in order to unlock the power of big data analytics, please download a copy of the report now.